Delhi High Court Directs Telegram to Reveal its Channels’ Source & Details

Delhi High Court Directs Telegram to Reveal its Channels’ Source & Details

The Delhi High Court (HC) has recently directed the globally accessible freemium, cloud-based, cross-platform instant messaging service, Telegram, to go against its privacy policy and reveal the source and details of its channels. The Delhi HC wants the platform to disclose the details of channels and devices used to disseminate alleged copyright infringing content, along with the email ids, IP addresses, and mobile numbers of such users, in a sealed cover.

By dismissing Telegram’s argument, which said that it couldn’t reveal user information as the same would infringe upon its privacy policy and the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction where its physical servers are located, Justice Prathiba M. Singh stated that even under the provisions of the IT Act, including Section 79(3)(b), Telegram is responsible for expeditiously removing or disabling access to the unlawful material or content, without vitiating the evidence in any manner.

In this case, the Delhi HC was dealing with a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs Neetu Singh and K.D. Campus Pvt. Ltd, seeking a permanent injunction restraining Copyright Infringement, damages, and other relief concerning the unauthorized dissemination of the plaintiffs’ books, lectures, videos, etc.

In the 51-page long order given by the Delhi HC to Telegram, the Court said that Indian courts would be appropriately justified in ordering Telegram, which runs its significant and massive operations in India, to adhere to the Indian laws and regulations, and orders passed by them for disclosure of crucial information relating to infringers.

The order further mentioned that just because of Telegram’s argument stating it chooses to locate its server in Singapore, the same can’t result remediless against the actual infringers. It even asserted that if such arguments are accepted, specifically in the present era, where most dissemination takes place through online messaging platforms and services, then Intellectual Property (IP) violations and infringements would go entirely unchecked.

The order specified that the provisions of the IT Act and the Rules made therein have to be construed harmoniously with remedies and exclusive rights provided to the copyright owners and holders under the Indian Copyright Act. As per the order, the Indian courts are competent enough to decide issues concerning copyright infringement; the mere fact that Telegram runs a messaging service in India and chooses not to locate its servers in the nation can’t deprive the Indian courts of dealing well with copyright-related disputes or the copyright owners of availing their remedies in the Indian courts.

The order even mentioned that in the current era of cloud computing and declining national boundaries in data storage, the conventional concepts of territoriality couldn’t be applied strictly, which is why the dynamic evolution of law is crucial to ensure appropriate remedies in copyright infringement instances and violation of other IP laws. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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YouTube must Face Lawsuits from Artists over Copyright Protection

YouTube must Face Lawsuits from Artists over Copyright Protection

A federal court in San Francisco has recently rejected YouTube LLC’s request to dismiss a contentious lawsuit filed by a group of content creators who believe that the American online social media and video sharing platform safeguards the interests of only big copyright holders such as music labels and major studios.

A United States district judge, James Donato, stated that YouTube couldn’t prove why the court should dismiss the lawsuit filed by ordinary copyright holders, led by Maria Schneider (Grammy-winning composer), at such an early stage of the case.

The attorneys for YouTube and its parent company Google didn’t respond to any comment immediately. Also, the attorneys for the plaintiffs didn’t respond to the request for comment.

In support of small copyright holders, Schneider sued the video-streaming giant in 2020 by arguing that the platform safeguards only big copyright holders from Copyright Infringement while allowing pirated content and material from others to draw in online users. According to the said group of small copyright holders, only major companies out there have access to YouTube’s advanced Content ID System to search for infringing content and block it automatically, while individual creators, on the other hand, are left out in the cold.

Last year, YouTube raised several arguments to dismiss the lawsuit in question. It told the court that the said group of small copyright holders had not recognized all copyright-protected content they were suing over. As per YouTube, the plaintiffs claimed the right to add new copyright to the lawsuit whenever they felt like it, thereby making their claims a moving target. YouTube even stated the group couldn’t prove that it owned some copyright-protected content at issue and failed to register others before suing.

Donato recently said that YouTube’s arguments were unavailing. He further mentioned that the lawsuit recognizes specific works whose copyright YouTube allegedly violated, and it was enough to give the video-streaming giant a fair notice of the claims.

Donato even dismissed YouTube’s arguments concerning the said group’s alleged failure to prove Copyright Registration and ownership. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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FIR Filed Against Sundar Pichai & 5 Others Over Copyright Infringement

FIR Filed Against Sundar Pichai & 5 Others Over Copyright Infringement

An FIR has recently been filed against the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, and five other employees of the tech giant at the MIDC police station following a court order. The FIR has been registered based on a complaint put forward by a Bollywood filmmaker, director, and producer, Suneel Darshan, alleging Copyright Infringement. In his complaint filed against Pichai and other Google employees, Darshan said that he didn’t sell the rights of his 2017 film ‘Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha’ to anyone; however, the film is still running on YouTube (owned by Google) without his permission and with millions of views. He further claimed that many people made a lot of money by uploading his film (which falls under his Intellectual Property (IP)) on YouTube. He even mentioned that he made multiple complaints to YouTube for many years concerning the illegal uploading of his film, but didn’t receive any response, following which he had to approach the court.

According to the police officer involved, the case has been filed at the MIDC Police Station in suburban Andheri on the orders given by a magistrate’s court.

When reached out to Google for comments on the said matter, the search engine giant said that it has a well-defined set mechanism using which the copyright holders can safeguard their unique and creative content on video-sharing platforms like YouTube. The Google spokesperson said that YouTube has the right management tools, such as its Content ID System, that enables the copyright holders to identify, promote, block, and even make money in an automated way from the uploads of their content on the platform. He also mentioned that when a copyright holder notifies YouTube about a video that infringes upon his content, the platform removes the content quickly as per the law and terminates the accounts of the users with several copyright strikes (a policing practice used by YouTube to manage copyright infringement and comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

The alleged infringers covered in the complaint filed include YouTube LLC, Google India Ltd., Google LLC, Sundar Pichai, and many others. The offense has been filed under sections 51, 63, and 69 relating to Copyright Violation of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957.

The film ‘Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha’ was written, produced, and directed by Suneel Darshan and starred Natasha Fernandez, Shiv Darshan, and Upen Patel.

Meanwhile, the Indian Government has selected Sundar Pichai (the CEO of Google), Satya Nadella (the CEO of Microsoft), and Natarajan Chandrasekaran (the Chairperson of Tata Group) for Padma Bhushan, which is the third-highest civilian award in the nation. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Pearson Files Copyright Infringement Lawsuit against Former Partner Chegg

Pearson Files Copyright Infringement Lawsuit against Former Partner Chegg

Pearson Education (a British-owned education publishing company providing assessment services to students, schools, and corporations) has recently filed a Copyright Infringement lawsuit against its former partner, Chegg (an American education technology company). According to Pearson, Chegg infringed upon its copyright only after a few months following the end of the partnership between the two companies by selling answers to the end-of-chapter questions included in Pearson textbooks.

The lawsuit, filed in New Jersey’s District Court, looks forward to seeking unspecified damages, along with a court order that would restrain Chegg from using the answer sets from Pearson materials. Jonathan Band, a lawyer and an expert on the subject matter of Intellectual Property (IP), said in a statement delivered that the case in question could not only weaken Chegg but also have implications for all the study guides that are based on existing texts and stick to the general selection and arrangement of such texts.

As per various reports, over the past year, the subscription base of Chegg grew by 67%. Many students even attended online classes during the pandemic. Currently, the company owns a market capitalization of $11.1 billion and has 6.6 million users.

Pearson’s copyright infringement lawsuit includes 150 of its textbooks – for which Chegg provides many answers by using the language that is copied or paraphrased from the original questions; for instance, Chegg Study provides even more than 700 answers for questions included in a widely-known biology textbook, known as Campbell Biology.

A Chegg spokesperson in response recently said that the company would fight all allegations by Pearson vigorously as it is in full compliance with the Copyright Law. He further mentioned that Chegg has been helping a lot of students in learning and thriving for many years now by creating a transformative digital learning platform that aids in learning more at a lower cost and in a lesser time. He also stated that the partnership between the two companies ended this year on May 31; however, he didn’t specify the type of partnership they shared, neither did the Pearson spokesperson.

According to Band, determining copyright infringement, in this case, could be tricky. He believes that the case is made even more complex as it refers to nonfiction texts, which often face difficulties in getting the tag of copyrighted material. Let us understand this with an example – in a chemistry or history book, there are only a definite number of logical ways to present the material. The individual paragraphs or words are undoubtedly protected; however, if an individual is only presenting the info in some way or the other using his own set of words, the first author wouldn’t have a monopoly over the way to present information.

The lawsuit indeed expresses high levels of tension between the two companies involved. Recently, Pearson came up with a subscription service that provides the students with access to thousands of textbooks at $14.99 per month; thereby, giving tough competition to Chegg. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Twitter Takes Down Image Tweeted By President Trump Over Copyright Claim

Twitter Takes Down Image Tweeted By President Trump Over Copyright Claim

The widely known American microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, has quite recently taken down an image shared by the US President Donald Trump from its platform after receiving a complaint of Copyright Infringement from The New York Times (an American newspaper based in the New York City with worldwide readership and influence).

The original tweet by President Trump shared on 30th June 2020, showed a meme with caption – In reality, they are not after me, they are after you, I am just in the way – along with Trump’s image in the background. The background picture was taken by a photographer at The New York Times, to accompany a feature article in September 2015 on then-presidential candidate Trump.

In place of the tweet, Twitter now displays the message that this image has been removed in response to a report from the copyright owner. This step by the well known social media platform, Twitter, is the latest instance of content posted by President Trump, which is, in turn, being removed or flagged, due to what Twitter believes is copyright infringement, violation of its policies, rules, and regulations, on threatening violence, amongst many others. Twitter removed the image shared after it received a complaint from The New York Times concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As per a notice posted on the Lumen Database, The New York Times owns the rights to the image in question. The database efficiently collects and evaluates the legal requests and complaints corresponding to the removal of online materials.

It was in May this year that Twitter began challenging Trump’s tweets and has clashed with him repeatedly since then. The president, on the other hand, has threatened the platform to change its laws after it labeled one of his tweets as inappropriate and hid a tweet about looting, which according to Twitter, fomented violence.

Due to copyright complaints, social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, also recently disabled a campaign tribute video to George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Music Companies Including Universal Threaten to Sue TikTok Over Copyright Infringement

Music Companies Including Universal Threaten to Sue TikTok Over Copyright Infringement

A body representing a lot of music publishing companies, including Universal, has quite recently threatened to sue TikTok (a Chinese video-sharing app and social networking platform) over Copyright Infringement.

For quite a while now, TikTok has become immensely popular as millions of people across the globe upload their short video clips on the platform, often indulging in lip-syncing with the background music. However, various music rights-holders think that the Chinese-owned video-sharing app doesn’t own the adequate licenses for the music used in its videos. According to a few sources, such music right-holders are now willing to initiate legal proceedings against TikTok.

David Israelite, the chief executive at the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA – a trade association for the American music publishing industry), has stated that filing a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit against TikTok is most probably the future step as he could estimate that even more than 50% of the music publishing market remains unlicensed with the video-sharing app.

Since last year, the world’s largest music company, Universal Music, has been in licensing negotiations with TikTok as the company is looking forward to extracting more money from the video-sharing platform as its user base balloons. However, the publishing arm of Universal Music still doesn’t have any licensing agreement with TikTok in place. It implies that the songwriters at Universal Music, which include Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Elton John, and Billie Eilish, don’t get paid any royalties as and when their songs are inserted in the background music of TikTok videos. Many people believe that this level of blatant copyright infringement is rarely seen that too by a large multinational company.

A TikTok spokesperson, on the other hand, stated that the platform is proud to support the music industry with a plethora of licenses that it owns in place. He further said that the details of any discussions or agreements between TikTok and its partners remain private and confidential at all times and in all aspects.

The NMPA represents a lot of songwriters and music publishers in the United States and holds a previous track record of suing many widely-known companies such as YouTube, Spotify, and Peloton, and often ending up winning settlement money.  In 2016, Spotify had agreed to pay somewhere around $30m to the songwriters for unpaid royalties, and Peloton, earlier this year, settled for an undisclosed amount of money with the NMPA.

When it comes to the music industry, copyrights are generally dealt with separately on the publishing side, which covers songwriting, and the recorded music side, which covers the phase of representing the actual music tracks.

Without any second thoughts, online streaming services have indeed revived the music industry by funneling billions back to well-known music labels. Such companies fiercely safeguard their share of the streaming riches via high stake licensing agreements and negotiations with Google, Spotify, Apple, and many others. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Effective Ways of Avoiding Copyright Issues in Music Production

Effective Ways of Avoiding Copyright Issues in Music Production

Without any second thoughts, getting into the music industry can nowadays prove to be quite brutal. Initially, you don’t think much about it by enjoying the phase and experiencing your dream job. You spend your time recording, producing, selling music, and getting paid for the same as well. However, after some time, you get to see the ugly face and harsh reality of the music industry, which indeed has cutthroat competition and a lot of mean people looking forward to claiming that you stole their tunes. Copyright Infringement lawsuits, in the present fast-paced society, are something that most of the music producers are accustomed to dealing with, but that doesn’t make them any uncomplicated to handle. Therefore, it is always highly advisable to avoid such complications as much as possible and as soon as possible. Let us now make ourselves familiar with how you can do the same proactively.

  1. Get all the Necessary Permissions

While being in the music industry, if you are looking forward to using the creative work of another person, then the first and foremost thing you need to do is get all the necessary permissions. It is a matter of fact that yes – the music industry is vast with a lot of artists and producers. At times you may think that you will not get caught; however, there’s no way out, and you will eventually end up getting caught, mostly in cases if you sell your music recordings. You might wake up one morning and see yourself hit by a copyright infringement lawsuit only because you didn’t receive permission from the concerned parties in the matter. Furthermore, the same applies to dead artists too. A lot of people across the globe are of the view that if a music artist is no more, then his or her creative works are open for use, which is undoubtedly far away from the truth.

The reality is that the families of the music artists who are no more and other concerned parties can still make a lot of money from royalties. Also, just because the artists are dead doesn’t mean their works are available for free. Therefore, make sure you have yourself covered in all aspects corresponding to having all the necessary permissions.

  1. Don’t Swindle the Music Tunes

There are indeed some music producers and artists who swindle the tunes from others and claim it as their own, which is a clear cut way of getting hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit. Without any doubt, you can go ahead with getting ideas from other music artists; however, you can’t take their music straight away and use it directly. There are various platforms on the Internet today that offer royalty-free sounds, loops, and sample packs to music producers. You can effectively make the most out of such opportunities by acquiring everything from the rightful owners and consequently avoid all copyright-related issues in the long run.

  1. Get in touch with a Specialized Copyright Attorney

If you wish to use a specific part of another person’s music, then it is always a brilliant idea to seek legal advice and assistance first. Copyright Laws are comprehensive with plenty of intricate details that you will miss if you begin understanding them yourself. So, get in touch with a specialized Copyright Attorney and understand whether what you are doing is legal or not. Also, under copyright laws and regulations, using some part of a music tune or song for non-commercial purposes doesn’t necessarily make it ‘fair use.’ Fair use doesn’t hold the need to seek permission from the copyright owner. However, there is a need to ensure that your case is under fair use, which again takes us to the utmost importance of consulting with experienced attorneys first.

  1. Have an Understanding about Copyrights

The copyright laws may prove to be too technical and complicated for you to understand, but you can focus on understanding the term copyright in general. When we come to the music industry, there are various misconceptions and misunderstandings related to copyright and related terms. Hence, it is imperative to know about the right things and avoid all unexpected damages. For instance, in the music industry, copyright laws not only extend to music but also the lyrics, which is something not many people know. If you use a paragraph from a poem or a book, the descendants of the writer might sue you alleging copyright infringement and demand some money if you had neglected to ask for permission. Even uploading a track (not for commercial purposes) with copyright infringement on your social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram may bring in trouble. You need to keep in mind all such details for avoiding copyright-related issues. It is highly advisable to prepare yourself for every possibility, understand the term copyright thoroughly, and know what you are allowed to do. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Court Rules against ‘GTA V’ Cheat Makers over Copyright Infringement

Court Rules against ‘GTA V’ Cheat Makers over Copyright Infringement

England and Wales Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has recently ruled against a pair of cheat developers in association with Epsilon (a former outfit related to GTA games) for infringing on the copyright by coding and selling the software.

The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) games are all about bad behavior for making money. Nevertheless, in the real world, their developer and publisher – Rockstar Games, Inc. and parent Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. – go hard on getting any hint about rules being broken, and thus, all the way to suing cheat app makers for Copyright Infringement.

The recent ruling is in relation to one such legal action that has gone well for the UK Company. It is a summary judgment meaning that the case would not go to trial.

Rockstar’s original Copyright Infringement Application for a summary judgment named five defendants, three of which have settled the case in the meantime. Rest two who chose to try their luck in court though affirmed their involvement with Epsilon, yet made efforts to invalidate the violation argument. They did so by saying that their team provided a disclaimer of liability to users of their cheat for the online gameplay GTA V. Nonetheless, the court said that this was a mere window-dressing.

In general, these cheats are known as the ‘mod menu’ and allow gamers to enjoy several advantages while playing. These sometimes unlock virtual in-game items and currency for which they would otherwise need to pay the real money.

Another thing the defendants said in their defense was that the Epsilon developed its software by forking the already existing code, which is available online. It means they downloaded the source code from a popular and well-known public cheating website. But, the court rejected this argument also and ruled in favor of Rockstar’s claim of violation of the contract against one defendant, dropping the charge against the other because he was a minor when the offense took place.

Although the case won’t go to the trial in association with the copyright charges, the issue related to legal cost may still require a trial. But Justice Falk, who signed the order, said that she hoped the parties would try to settle this matter. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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SaskTel Sent 30,000 Copyright Infringement Notices to Internet Customers

SaskTel Sent 30,000 Copyright Infringement Notices to Internet Customers

As it turns out that a lot of SaskTel customers are allegedly involved in internet piracy, the company, since January 2019, has sent out around 30,000 Copyright Infringement notifications to customers, who are accused of engaging in downloading or uploading copyrighted materials.

A spokesperson for SaskTel said that the number of notices the Crown tends to issue has remained steady in recent years. The spokesperson explained that receiving one of such notices doesn’t mean that the user is being sued by Hollywood studio. However, it can lead to a suit if the user continues with the activity causing infringement.

Although SaskTel doesn’t monitor the customers’ online activities, it is obligated under the Copyright Act of Canada to issue notices related to infringement on receiving communications from copyright owners.

Halifax-based lawyer David Fraser, who specializes in internet privacy and technology law, warned SaskTel customers by saying that they shouldn’t take the notices lightly. Mr. Fraser, during a recent telephonic interview, said that he would neither ignore it and nor laugh it off; rather, he would take it seriously. The lawyer continued and provided an example saying that if he were to receive a notice in his house or to discover that one of his kids was doing something like a violation, he would have a conversation with the kid as he wouldn’t want the thing to go further.

According to Mr. Fraser, copyright owners can track SaskTel users with the help of companies that possess the technology to detect the IP addresses that access copyrighted materials, like movies through peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Nonetheless, the copyright holders don’t get aware of the users’ names, and SaskTel wouldn’t provide that information to anyone unless a court orders it to do so.

Fraser then said that Hollywood studios have sued around thousands of individuals in Canada for piracy. While representing Canadian residents against whom the lawsuits for copyright infringement have been filed by the studios, Mr. Fraser revealed that these lawsuits often fall within the range of $5,000.

Companies usually provide individuals with several notices before deciding to sue them for copyright infringement. If you receive one or two notices, then there’re possibilities that you could be sued in case you continue doing the same thing as you were doing it before. Moreover, once you get sued, you will be sued again and again. You cannot ignore it, as if you do so, then the studio gets a default judgment against you, said Fraser.

A default judgment takes place when a defendant fails to respond to summons or unable to appear in court. SaskTel said it received one court application asking for information about copyright infringement, but the data wasn’t available because the Crown stores the information only for six months. Pirating copyrighted material is in infringement of the Crown agency’s Internet use policy.

According to this policy, customers should not upload, transmit, publish, or reproduce literary work, software, or other material, which is protected by any Intellectual Property (IP) right without obtaining the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

SaskTel, at last, said getting a copyright infringement notice doesn’t affect the customers’ internet access, but the continuation in piracy-related activities can result in the suspension of service. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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5 Essential Things Photographers Must Know About Copyright

5 Essential Things Photographers Must Know About Copyright

Have you taken a photograph? Then under Copyright Law of many countries, you own the copyright to that photo. This law is something that affects not just photographers but also those who want to use photos taken or created by someone else. With the ease of taking and sharing images, the concerns related to their unauthorized use have increased much. Hence, comprehending legal rights associated with the photographers and their photographs is more crucial than ever. Let’s have a look at five vital things everyone should know about copyright in photographs.

  1. Copyright is Automatic

If you take a photo, then you automatically become its owner according to the provisions provided in the copyright law of the US and several other nations. As it is automatic and immediate, you needn’t file or publish anything to establish or own your copyright. However, going for Copyright Registration of your photograph is recommended due to several reasons, but it’s not mandatory.

  1. Use of the Copyright Symbol Isn’t Mandatory

Using the copyright symbol on your images at the time you publish them is a good idea. It is a reminder to the viewers that the specific image is protected as your copyright. In other words, it’s a smart step to secure your work from being infringed by those who mistakenly believe that photos without a copyright symbol are available for free use. However, the copyright law of most countries is clear that using the copyright symbol isn’t required to protect your photos. The law states that one’s images belong to him/ her regardless of whether he/ she put the symbol when publishing them or not.

  1. Registering Your Photos With Relevant Copyright Office Offers Additional Protection

Registering your photo with Copyright Office bestows you with extra protection in the Copyright Infringement case. It limits your case to actual damages, i.e., the amount of money that the violation costs you as opposed to statutory damages, i.e., damages valued by the law based on the type of infringement. Since the actual damages are often very difficult to prove and can be very limited in some cases, the ability to obtain statutory damages is a remarkable reason to register your copyright whenever you come up with new and useful work.

  1. It’s Possible to Allow Others to Use Your Photo Without Giving Up the Copyright

You, as a copyright owner, possess the right to license your photo to another party. Copyright licensing refers to a way of permitting someone to use your photo without affecting its ownership. Copyright License Agreements can vary based on the control over the image you want to grant to others. You can grant the right to use your photo for specific purposes for a specific time or broad usage. Besides how you plan to license your photo, you can allow the party to use the same without giving up your ownership. Hence, if someone asks for permission to use your photo, ensure understanding what rights you are granting, along with whether those rights relate to licensed use or copyright.

  1. Use of Photos Doesn’t Always Mean Infringement of Owner’s Copyright

Although the law provides the owner with exclusive rights to reproduce, display, share and distribute his/ her work, there are a few legal provisions under which someone can use a copyrighted photo even without obtaining permission from the original owner. For instance, quoting a portion of any written work or sharing a photo for purposes like educational, reporting, legislative, etc., can be allowed under ‘fair use.’ Nevertheless, fair use is limited in scope, and therefore, most cases where someone uses your work without your consent result in copyright infringement. So, be careful.

As photographers, it’s essential for us to at least have a basic understanding of the Copyright Protection and rights we can enjoy under the law of the respective nation. For further information and questions/ answers related to copyright law, protection, registration, or more, you are recommended to find a good Intellectual Property Attorney. You can also look for a deft Intellectual Property Law Firm as such companies will provide you with the best possible information. These can assist you with almost every concern, from the Copyright Registration Process to the fee required to register your photo and even how to secure other Intellectual property (IP) assets. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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